Another update from Elder McAlister! Sound like a normal missionary with plenty of challenges and interesting experiences. I was able to exchange a few quick emails back and forth today, and he was asking for money to replace the pants torn by the dog (see his email below) and some shoes that were destroyed by mud.
It's great to here him speak of their investigators and the progress they are making. I wish he could feel better about picking up the language, but he most likely inherited my brain for language, so that could be a problem ;-).
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Hey Everyone,
It sounds like everyone is having a party and a good time, which is good to hear. I hope that Brother Foster is okay and doing well.
This week has been really hard. My companion has been acting like a little kid, and randomly will tackle me and toss my study table. At times I want to kill him (haha). But, it has been a hard week because he hasn't done any planning with me because he is the district leader and gets calls at night and that's when he plans. So most of the time, I don't know where we are going or what we are doing. One of the days the President came down to visit Linares and Longavi, which was good to see him. We had our interviews and had meetings with the assistants which is a lot of fun.
We had a mini cambio, which is when Elder Donoso worked with one of the assistants, and I worked with a different Elder. I was able to work with Elder Flores who is from Peru, and he speaks no English. So we went contacting, and we were going house to house and we got 2 new investigators and 8 Future investigators which was really good for the amount of time we had, and we are still working in a new sector. Anyways, we were walking and we see this dog just lying in the street, like most of the dogs do. So we go to contact this one house near the dog. We start yelling halo which is like yelling hola but it’s just different when yelling at a house. Then the dog just went crazy and went to attack us, which wasn't fun because I was right next to the dog. The dog ended up ripping my pants and I ended up kicking it, which nether one was fun. I went the rest of the day contacting and working with a big rip in my pants (haha). I'm just glad the dog didn't get to bit me.
Lately we have been using members as a good source for referrals, and having them come with us to lessons which they have been awesome. We have a small branch, but also a lot of non-active members in Linares. It’s been fun but super hard just because of the language and not being able to say completely what I want to say, or just have a conversation with people. So right now the Spanish feels like it’s coming really slow and part of the problem is Elder Donoso wants to learn English and tries to only speak English to me and it’s not helping me. I’m hoping soon it will start to click and I’ll be able to understand the conversations really well.
Our casa is pretty nice but I like the other one a lot more because it had a couch and was more furnished. This one is empty and pretty big for four Elders. It’s starting to get warmer in the mornings and that has been really nice. I forgot to tell you about Elder Watson and Elder Bueno, who are the other Elders in our casa. They are awesome and I want them to be my companions in the future.
Our investigators are doing okay. Sara Flores just needs that last little push and we will have a baptism which would be awesome. She has been coming to church and everything; it’s just baptism that scares her. We also have a man who is Eduardo and his wife is a member but he´s not yet. Then we have a little girl named Fransica who is awesome and has been coming to church. We have been meeting with her and her family, and her family is non-active and she is 8 years old and not a member. Then Margarita, who was our best one, but we haven’t seen her for a while, which is killing us and we have no clue why she’s never home. Those are our best investigators down here and they are doing great, other than Margarita which we don't know what’s going on there.
I want to thank you guys again for everything and how awesome you guys are. I’m having a good time other than Spanish which is killing me. But soon I will love Spanish as much as English. I love you guys and stay strong in the church.
Love you McAlister family
Elder McAlister
P.S. I haven't gotten the package yet and our street is Luis Carrera, Linares, in Chile and our house is around there.
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Again this week I leave you with a thought shared with Sean from his Mom:
My thoughts come from Elder S. Gifford Nielsen's conference talk:
One of my favorite songs and scriptures as a teenager. Alma's heartfelt plea: "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" Alma 29:1. Concerning the hastening of the work Elder L. Tom Perry added these comments: "This is the most remarkable era in the history of the church. This is something that ranks with the great events that have happened in past history, like the First Vision, like the gift of the Book of Mormon, like the Restoration of the gospel, like all of the things that build that foundation for us to go forward and teach in our Father in Heaven's kingdom." And the final scripture found in D&C 76:22, the Prophet Joseph Smith says, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!"
Until next week when we have another update...be careful out there everyone and watch out for those lying dogs!
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